


Imma Just Shoplift It

by KnightmareAceBlue



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Attempts at humour, Charles is lonely, Convict Allies Ending | CA (Henry Stickmin), Dmitri is only there for like, Don't Shoplift folks, Ellie doesn't get food, Facepalm, Fluff, Friendship, Galeforce is only there briefly, Government Supported Private Investigator Ending | GSPI (Henry Stickmin), Henry has anxiety, Humour, I forgot to write a description, Illustrations, Implied Anxiety, Other, Rupert isn't named because Henry doesn't remember his name, Triple Threat Ending | TT (Henry Stickmin), friendship fluff, one paragraph - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27489901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnightmareAceBlue/pseuds/KnightmareAceBlue
Summary: Charles bought Henry a jacket, once. He should've just let Henry steal it.But he didn't. And now Henry's forcing Ellie to help him look for it. He's delaying their escape; the least he can do is give her the story, right?
Relationships: Charles Calvin & Ellie Rose & Henry Stickmin, Charles Calvin & Henry Stickmin, Ellie Rose & Henry Stickmin
Comments: 7
Kudos: 73





	Imma Just Shoplift It

The Wall was in total chaos. Alarms were blaring, prisoners were running in every direction as guards desperately tried to corral them back into their cells. The normal ominous silence of the prison had been replaced with a low hum of fighting as criminals desperate for freedom battled with the guards who for so long had kept it from them. The Warden, armed with only a scowl and a shotgun, raced through the hallways, inwardly cursing the criminal who he knew caused all this drama. The only thoughts in his head were once of revenge, of punishment, of suffering for the criminal who dared bring this chaos to his wall.

Being so single-mindedly focused caused him to run right past the nearby coat room without even a glance. Which was a shame, because if he had paused to peak inside, he would’ve seen the very convict he was trying so hard to apprehend. Henry was just standing there, digging around in a chest filled to the brim with clothing. Behind him stood his ally, the red headed convict Ellie, who stood off to the side, out of sight, with her arms crossed, foot tapping in rhythm with her pulse.

“C’mon, Henry,” She whispered harshly, “This is like the fifth room we’ve checked. Whatever you’re looking for is probably long gone. We should get out of here while we still can,” She stood between Henry and the door, ready to get between her new friend and anyone who’d dare try to show him a bad time.

From the inside of the chest came only sounds of cloth being shuffled around as Henry dug around. This was the last coat room in the Complex: if it wasn’t here, then some particularly brave or particularly dumb guard had taken it home, and Henry would have to go hunting. And that wouldn’t be fun for anybody.

Fortunately, buried deep in the bottom of the pile, Henry’s fingers came across a familiar texture, “Aha!” He proclaimed aloud, pulling at the item until it was untangled from the other articles of clothing in the box. It had been packed down deliberately. Somebody was aiming to take this home without it being noticed, and Henry had been fortunate enough to find it before they could head home. Lucky. For the guard.

Henry spun once, quicker than Ellie’s eyes could catch, and the familiar blue of Henry’s zip up sweater was covered by leather. Lightly coloured fur now lined his neck and his wrists. His back was now covered with an image of a shooting star, helpfully labeled with sharp white words.

A jacket? They’d paused their escape and risked getting caught for a _jacket?_

“Hey!” Henry rebuttled, “This is a damn good jacket. Real leather. A friend picked it up for me a few weeks back.”

Ellie was about to object that she could’ve gotten him a new jacket – it would be easy, shoplifting would be a cakewalk compared to the actual fun stuff that had landed her at the Wall. But the word ‘friend’ made her pause.

Stopping to grab a jacket was an unnecessary diversion, but getting some juicy Lore about her new friend? Oh, hell yes. Well worth getting caught again.

“A friend,” Ellie smiled coyly and sidled right up beside Henry, “Or a _friend_?”

If she was looking to fluster her co-escapist, Ellie would’ve been disappointed by the resulting eye roll and crossed arms, “It’s not like that. He’s just… a way too nice guy. I didn’t even want him to buy the jacket,” Henry smiled at the memory, “It’s actually kind of a funny story. Do you want to-?”

When Henry looked back at Ellie, she was already sitting on the cold concrete floor, legs criss-crossed, all ready for story time.

“Well okay then.”

Several hours after Henry had collected evidence that would put the Toppat Clan away for life-

“Wait, you did _what?!”_

“Oops,” Henry shrugged, sheepish. His shoulders suddenly felt tense, “Forgot to mention that.”

“I heard about that operation. You pretty much decimated the Toppats, dude. That’s hardcore,” The tension in Henry’s shoulders left, “How did you pull something like that off solo?”

“I didn’t. Not really. But that’s a story for another time. So as I was saying…”

Several hours after Henry had collected evidence that would put the Toppat Clan away for life, Henry was escorted into what could only be described as luxurious _bliss_.

“This is amazing!” Henry gasped, rushing across the room to pull the curtains apart. Just outside, he could see the large shimmering pool, and beyond that a lovely view of the connected gulf course, “This place is beautiful!” He abandoned that and rushed over to the cabinet above the dresser, pulling it open to reveal a giant flat screen, “This TV’s bigger than my bathroom!” And he flew from that over to the mini-fridge, fully stocked with alcohol and fancy water, “There’s so much stuff here!” And from there he bounced onto the bed, fluffy and soft as a cloud, and tried desperately not to think of the brick of a mattress he’d have to go back to when he got home, “Haaah. This is the _life_.”

“I’m happy the accommodations are to your liking,” Captain Galeforce stood at the door, arms folded neatly behind his back. He was ever the picture of military professionalism, but had definitely relaxed some since the success of the Airship mission, “We apologize again for being unable to get you home until tomorrow. In the meanwhile, please feel free to take advantage of the hotel’s facilities. All expenses will be paid for you, of course.”

Not much could’ve unglued Henry Stickmin from that delicious marshmallow of a mattress right then, but those words had him jumping right back up to his feet, “All expenses paid, you said? So...” Henry smiled, the giddy kind of smile you’d see from a child at an amusement park, “I could order room service?”

“Of course.”

The smile widened, “I could go check out the sauna?”

“Absolutely.”

“I could ride down the dumbwaiter?!” Henry was practically shaking in his excitement.

“ _PLEASE_ do not ride down the dumbwaiter,” The Captain gave him a long, tired look, like the parent of a child at an amusement park.

“Aw,” That moment of disappointment was immediately overtaken by another, less strong rush of excitement as he spotted what appeared to be a TV program, filled with all the various movie options the hotel provided, “All right, I’ll behave,” He promised, absently thumbing through the movie options, looking for something to enjoy with his dinner, “But man, if the government treats all it’s outsourced operations like this, I might just have to take more government missions.”

“And we might just take you up on that offer,” The Captain replied, “Enjoy your night, Stickmin. We’ll pick you up around 0900 hours tomorrow morning,” And with that, Galeforce exited the room, expression neutral, trailed after by his ever vigilant guard, who was not nearly as neutral with the glance he threw back in Henry’s direction. Not that Henry cared.

Since his evening was on the Government’s dime, Henry was not shy about ordering a smorgseborg of fancy foods, all fresh and hot and delivered right to his lap. The meat was tender and dripping with juices, the potatoes were thick and rich, and even the god damn _salad_ was-

“Henry, please, _stop_ , I’m already starving-”

“Right, sorry.”

Well, short and to the point, the food was delicious.

The movie selection was vast, and consisted mostly of fancy foreign films Henry wasn’t familiar with, but he eventually found the latest installment of “Hearts and Heroines”, an ongoing, action-packed thriller series about a girl who saved the world and made really, really bad choices when it came to love and no, Ellie, it’s not lame. It’s dumb in the funnest way possible.

So there Henry was, nestled under three different blankets and stuffed full, picking away at what remained of his dinner while enraptured with the story.

“ _Veronica, please,”_ Begged the voice of the hot and despicable male lead, _“I know I cheated on you, but only to remind myself how little I love other girls compared to you! Please take me back!”_

“Don’t you do it, Veronica,” Henry growled at the screen, annoyed, “He’s done this to you twice already, don’t you dare-”

Someone knocked on the door. Three quick raps, strong enough to be heard over the probably too loud television.

“Coming!” Henry answered, not even bothering to pause his movie. He removed two of his three blankets and stalked towards the door, “Hey, sorry, but I already got my food, I think you have the wrong-”

It wasn’t a food runner.

It was Charles Calvin, the helicopter pilot who’d helped him out during the Airship raid. He was wearing a fresh uniform, identical to the one he’d worn during the mission, and still had that same stupid grin on his face.

“Heya, Henry!” He greeted, that same cheerful tone he’d used to talk Henry through the airship. Henry had assumed that his energetic, friendly demeanor had been at least in part an act, to keep Henry calm and make sure he didn’t flake out halfway through the mission. But no. Apparently Charles was... just like that, “How, ah, how are you doing? Everything going okay?”

“’M fine,” Henry responded. He could feel residual stickiness on the corners of his mouth, and started wiping at his face with his sleeve. He felt like a mess, and was well aware he looked it too. On the mission he hadn’t cared – there was an objective to complete, a job to get done. Here, though? Here Henry was well aware that it was only him and Charles. No objective, no mission, no bad guy to beat. Just... two guys, talking. It shouldn’t be this stressful.

(It was immensely stressful.)

“So what are you up to?” Charles asked. If he’d picked up on Henry’s anxiety, he wasn’t making it known, “Got any big plans for the evening?”

“Oh yeah, I, uh, was just gonna watch some movies,” Henry responded, trying to play it cool even as his muscles tensed, “Just some macho, manly action movies-”

“Well, if you don’t mind taking a break from your... manly action movies,” This statement was punctuated by the awkward sounds of fake movie kissing in the background, “I was just about to check out the shops across the street. Treat myself a little, since we won today. But then I thought, ‘well, we mostly won ‘cause of Henry’, so I decided to see if you wanted to come pick out a souvenir with me. You know, something to celebrate our victory. My treat.”

Henry was torn two ways. On one hand, he’d have to go outside. His clothes were wrinkled and dirty, and he hadn’t showered all day. Plus, he’d be out with a stranger. Charles was friendly, sure, but he was still an unknown variable. He could be dangerous. This could be a trap by the government, get him to do their dirty work and then trick him into violating his pardon so they could lock him up anyways. Or maybe Charles was like the captain’s guard, whoever he was, holding a grudge against him for no apparent reason other than his criminal past. Going along with him could be dangerous.

On the other hand, free stuff. It was really a no-brainer.

“Wow.”

“I know, shut up.”

“You’re kind of a mooch, aren’t you?’

“You know, there’s really only one way to interpret ‘shut up’, so I’d appreciate it if you did that, okay?”

So off they went, two guys walking to the shops together. Henry had half-expected to be interrogated on the way there, but Charles seemed content to just prattle on about work, his boss, previous missions, how this was apparently an after mission tradition for him; nonsense that Henry let distract him from the people they passed on the walk over. Nobody stopped them, but Henry couldn’t quite shake the feeling of eyes on the back of his head. Maybe the military was watching them? Or maybe someone was staring at his gross day old clothes? It was hard to shake, but Charles dumb story about catching a guy mid-fall (in a helicopter? Impressive) at least gave him something to focus on.

The store they ended up entering first was one of those hole-in-the-wall old shops, the kind that had been going for long enough that you could smell the built up dust. They sold clothing, accessories, various household knick knacks. Not Henry’s first choice, exactly, but Charles had grinned ear-to-ear as he lead the other man inside and, well, beggars can’t exactly be choosers. There had to be at least one thing in here he’d like.

And so there was. Fifteen minutes into browsing, while Charles was thumbing through some raincoats, Henry spotted it.

The Jacket.

It called to him like a siren song, pulling him away from Charles and towards the mannequin. His eyes followed the soft fur collar down to the tanned leather, red and shiny and _just_ his color. It was quality stuff, would hold up to the type of wear and tear that Henry’s mischief would no doubt put it through. The seams were sewn well, and the inside looked to be lined with a comfortable cotton cloth. Sleeves were nice and long, a little bland, but nothing some custom patches wouldn’t fix. The wrists were lined with the same material as the collar, and would be quite comfortable if he had to press his arms against something hard, like when he slid down that ventilation shaft into the deeper parts of the airship. Then Henry found the price tag.

Wow. That was... a lot of zeroes. More than he felt comfortable letting a stranger spend on him.

“See, I’m not a _total_ mooch. I have tact.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I do!”

“Sure, Jan.”

Well, okay, maybe Henry wasn’t comfortable letting a stranger buy him that, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take it for himself anyways. He looked to both sides – no people. He looked up – no cameras. Grinning, Henry reached out a hand and lightly gripped the sleeve of the jacket-

“Oh, hey, did you want that?”

And Charles. Right. Forgot about him for a second.

“Ah, no, not really,” Henry lied smoothly. Now that he had an objective – Stealing the Jacket – he found himself with a bit more confidence to spare, “Just looking. You find anything you like?”

“Nope,” Charles took the sleeve with the price tag in hand. Henry panicked for a moment – was Charles going to buy it for himself? – before Charles turned back to him, “You sure? I don’t mind getting it for you.”

Henry shook his head, “It’s not really my colour,” He lied again, “Besides, I think there’s some cool stuff over there we haven’t seen!” Now that he was thinking a little more clearly, it was probably a good thing Charles had interrupted him. Trying to steal a jacket while the very government agent who’d helped pardon him was right there? Not his best idea. He’d wander around, case the joint to see what kind of security they had, then return without Charles later. Simple enough.

They wandered around the store after that. The direction Henry pointed out was the hat section, and while they didn’t find any souvenirs worth their time, Charles managed to find the dumbest top hat in the entire universe and paraded around in it, pretending to be one of the criminals they’d spent the day stopping and making Henry laugh with his awful, awful ‘dumb criminal’ jokes. Henry, in turn, took a novelty military hat and did a spot on impression of Charles’ captain which, looking back, could have gone REALLY badly for him, though luckily Charles found it hilarious.

No cameras in this section. Security tags on some of the pricier hats, he’d have to come up with something to get around the one that was likely on the coat. They moved on.

This section did have a security camera, quite prominently faced towards the pricey jewelry on display. Most of it was tacky, the fake stuff that stained your skin and gave you rashes. A few more valuable pieces caught Henry’s eye, but they weren’t quite valuable enough to risk getting caught by the camera. And also Charles. Yeah, getting caught by Charles would be bad.

Henry strolled through the various cheap necklace displays, looking for a dollar sign necklace so he could continue making fun of the Toppats with Charles, when the pilot called him over to one of the display tables.

“Check it out Henry!” He seemed excited, “I think I found our souvenirs! What do you think?”

Henry took a look at the table.

The pins were cheap but stylish. The fact that they resembled pilot’s pins felt particularly appropriate. Henry could already picture the gold one on his chest, pinned right under the fur collar of his new jacket. You know, when he got around to stealing it. Yeah, that was a good enough souvenir.

Charles had already picked up the silver one, holding it right under the collar of his shirt to show it off, “Yeah, this works. I like it,” Charles had that bright smile on his face, and it looked like their mission was accomplished. Well, Charles’ was, at any rate.

Then he brought up the jacket again.

“You sure you don’t want it?” Charles asked as they passed it. The store was dead, except for the two of them. When Henry shook his head, the pilot suddenly got an odd smile on face. A different one than the general friendly enthusiasm he’d shown all day, “Hey, I have an idea. Let’s race to the check out. Winner gets to, uh, pick out some candy to take back. That okay?”

Free candy? Oh, hell yes.

Henry let Charles count down, and took off just before he could say go, because, good guy or not, Henry Stickmin was an asshole. Technically speaking it wasn’t a long race, as the store wasn’t particularly big, but that didn’t matter when delicious candy was on his mind. Sweet chocolate wafers, melting in your mouth, creamy vanilla filling-

“ _Henry._ ”

“Right, sorry.”

Naturally, Henry won.

He reached the check-out lane in seconds, tagging the edge of the counter with one hand and turning around to rub his victory in Charles’ face. Only, Charles wasn’t there. He should have been right on Henry’s heels, but he wasn’t. Did he trip? Was this some sort of trick? Was the cashier staring at Henry like he was crazy?

Well, yes, the cashier was staring at Henry like he was crazy. Or maybe the poor boy was just too exhausted to look like he gave a shit. Either way, Henry could only stare at him awkwardly, wondering what terrible thing he’d done to deserve being stared down by a strange teenager with the emotional range of a toad.

Besides taunt Ellie with descriptions of delicious food, obviously. That didn’t count.

“Hope you picked out some good candy!” Charles’ voice finally swam over Henry and the bored cashier, drawing Henry’s anxious attention away from the stone cold stare of the boy. Any relief Henry might have felt was instantly washed away as he noticed that, in addition to the two pins they’d picked out, Charles was carrying the leather jacket Henry had been eyeing earlier.

All he could think as he saw it was no, no, no, no, “Charles, I told you I didn’t want that,” Henry objected, jumping away from the counter to pull the coat away, put it back, maybe stash it somewhere for easy pickings later, “It’s not my style, I don’t want it.”

“Nah, you don’t gotta lie to me, man,” None of Henry’s stuttering attempts to talk Charles down were fruitful, “I saw the way you were eyeing it up. You want it, I know you dooo~.”

“But- but-” Henry was sputtering at this point, absolutely befuddled. The pressure of his plans falling apart, the confident ‘gottem’ smirk on Charles’ face, the itching on the back of his neck where the cashier was still staring at them, it was all too much. He couldn’t even think clearly enough to lie, “But it’s way too much!”

The honest truth, or maybe Henry’s genuine panic, finally got Charles to look the other man dead in the eye, “Is that it?” He asked, “Hey, don’t even worry about it. I’ve got this.”

Henry wanted to object again, wanted to just take the damn coat and run, but all he could was watch as Charles plopped down his purchases and the cashier rang them out, “You’re sure it’s not too much?”

“It’s not like I have anything else to spend this money on, heh,” Charles smiled, but for the first time Henry spotted a crack in the facade, a glimpse of what was underneath, “I live on base, so no rent, and don’t really spend a lot on food. After a while, you just kinda end up with a big pile of the stuff without realizing it,” The cashier totaled their items, and Charles reached into a pocket and pulled out a card, “Most of the time I’m just buying stuff for my friends, except I don’t... exactly... have a lot of those either. It happens when you move around a lot, you just... don’t stay in touch.”

So Charles was lonely. That certainly explained a lot.

The three just stood in awkward silence for a while; Henry, Charles, and the cashier who very obviously wished to be somewhere else.

Eventually, it was Henry who broke the silence, “You know what? Forget the candy,” He tossed the bag he’d picked up to the side, and the cashier made a face like curdling milk as he took the item off the order, “Why don’t we pick up some ice cream and you join me for movie night?”

“Oh...” Charles seemed genuinely surprised by the offer, “You sure? I don’t want to impose...”

You know, despite already imposing on Henry’s movie night for an impromptu shopping session.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Henry insisted, “It’d be nice to have someone to help me yell at the characters for being so awful,” Because Henry didn’t have a lot of friends either. There was this... tight feeling in his chest all the time when he was around people, and while the ever present risk of them finding him out and turning him over for his crimes was definitely the primary cause, a part of Henry had always felt uncomfortable around people. But with Charles, in this past hour, he hadn’t really felt uncomfortable. He’d latched onto Charles’ stories, joked around with him, could see himself matching Charles’ daring stories of dumb helicopter stunts with tales from his past heists, filled with equally dumb stunts that would have (should have?) gotten him killed.

A real friendship with Charles. Yeah, that could work. Maybe.

“Well...” Charles smiled differently; guarded, optimistic, “I can yell pretty loud, just so you know.”

“Fine by me,” Henry said. And hey, maybe if tonight worked out, he’d keep in touch with Charles. Maybe this friendship could actually work.

By the end of the night, there was no more maybe.

“And that’s how I got this awesome jacket,” Henry finished, popping the fur collar as a final point of emphasis.

Ellie, who’d been sitting on the ground, leaning back as she listened to the tale, hummed, “You... are an interesting character, Henry Stickmin,” She decided, “But if you got pardoned by the government, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Heck if I know,” Henry shrugged, “I think the warden’s just crazy.”

And Ellie nodded sagely, for it was the truth.

From there, the escape continued. Oh, man, what an escape it was! I could paint a whole picture of the shenanigans these two got into on their way out of that horrible complex. But you already know what went down, so let’s just skip to the good part.

Ellie pulled their stolen motorcycle up to the spot Henry had pointed out. It looked like a concrete building block that had been comically misplaced in the middle of nowhere, but Henry had insisted this was the right spot, so in they went. The interior of the painfully simple structure was actually quite a bit warmer than expected, so while Henry jumped on the phone, Ellie got to taking inventory of what was apparently a secret military bunker.

“Hey, it’s me. Have you got a- What? No, I haven’t gotten any packages yet, I’m not even home-”

If there was one thing to be said about the military, they were certainly well organized. Food was stacked neatly on shelves, least to most recent. Ellie thumbed through them quickly, tossing expired items into a separate container. It wasn’t gourmet by a long shot, but between the two of them it could last up to two months. Hopefully she could find information about wild flora and fauna in the area somewhere as well, just in case they’d need to stay longer.

“Look, okay- don’t, don’t freak out, but I kinda sorta got kidnapped? And had to break out of the Wall?”

“ _You WHAT?!”_

Oof. That was loud enough for Ellie to hear all the way across the room.

Ellie bent down and pulled out one of the boxes from underneath the food cabinet. Piles of blankets were neatly folded in the box. Some were a little moth bitten, but that was okay. Looking around, Ellie noticed there weren’t any pillows in the entire facility. Fortunately for them, it was warm enough that they could just take one of these folded blankets and use them as pillows. If they needed to spend the night, that is. Hopefully they wouldn’t.

“Yeah, listen- No, I’m- No I don’t need- Charles, I’m not gonna check my pulse, I’m not dead!”

In a second box were an assortment of winter clothes, which were more immediately useful if Henry’s ride came through. Ellie dug through the box, taking scarves and boots that looked to be the appropriate sizes for both of them. At the bottom of the box, to her surprise, were what appeared to be spare Wall uniforms, but a little off. Her best guess was they were maybe a few years out of date. The fabric was still in good condition.

Ellie looked over at Henry, at the bare arms of his sleeves. He’d mentioned wanting to get some patches for his jacket, right?

Yeah, she could do that.

“Charles, slow down. Charles- Charles, focus, please-”

Conveniently, the box also possessed a small sewing kit. It was sparsely packed, mostly intended for utilitarian repairs, but Ellie felt herself creative enough to work with that. It also included a pair of scissors, which she used to cut a square out of the old uniform, then used a pen to sketch out a pattern and began cutting.

It wasn’t until she finished cutting out the second part of her patch that she realized she probably shouldn’t be cutting up government property without permission.

...eh, screw it.

“Look, I need you to pick me and my new friend up from Outpost Maple, can you do that?”

It was a little tricky; these scissors were definitely not made for fabric, but Ellie found herself smiling at the finished product: a single silver snowflake. But it wasn’t quite finished. It still needed something...

Looking back, Ellie noticed one of the scarves was particularly glittery, and grabbed it.

“Yeah, that’s fine, we can wait... Heh, you don’t have to do that. If it comes to that, we’ll come up with something else... well, if you’re sure...”

Ellie’s snowflake was beautiful. But still, something was off. In Henry’s story, they’d gotten two pins, right? One for each of them? With that in mind, Ellie immediately began cutting out a second square.

“Alright, ring us back when you’re on your way. See ya soon, bud.”

Henry hung up and walked across the room, leaning back against the wall before sliding down until he was sat next to Ellie, and then continued sliding. Eventually he was practically laid down on the floor, watching Ellie’s impromptu arts and crafts session without a sound.

The silence was comfortable.

Eventually, just as she was finishing up cutting the second snowflake, Ellie asked, “So how long ‘til our ride gets here?”

A small smile crossed Henry’s lips, “He said, and I quote, ‘Until either I get the boss’ permission, or until everyone’s asleep so I can steal a chopper. Whichever comes first’.”

The two shared a laugh.

“So whatchya working on?” Henry scooted back up so he could get a better look at Ellie’s sewing project.

Snowflake number one was promptly placed in Henry’s open palm, “I noticed you didn’t have any patches for your jacket yet, so... I made you one,” With a smile, she held out the second one, complete except for the needed addition of glitter, “Made myself one too. I think it’ll look nice on my old bag, once I get back to my apartment.”

Henry took a look at the little snowflake in his hand, then again at Ellie. He smiled.

Making a new friend hadn’t exactly been his top priority, but... Ellie was good. Between her and Charles, life certainly would be more interesting.

Henry was okay with that.

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction is also posted on my tumblr, KnightmareAceBlue.
> 
> It's been a while since I've written creatively, so feel free to leave some constructive feedback in the comments. And I hope you liked the illustrations. When I saw you could add pictures to AO3 stories, I couldn't help but try it out. Thanks for reading!


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